Author:Robin Page
Ever wanted to know if the sun will really shine tomorrow?
Well, if you follow the wonderful, clear-sighted advice in this classic book, you could find yourself able to make accurate forecasts whatever the weather - ensuring your camping trips are dry, your nature trails comfortable or bracing, and your wild swims just the right kind of wet.
Telling you what happens if it rains on St Swithin's Day, or if there's a red sky at night, if it snows at Easter or if spiders spin long webs, Weather Forecasting The Country Way will put you in touch with thousands of years of British wisdom and heritage.
In amusing and delightful prose, Robin Page shows how applying simple common sense to country lore - based on observing animal and plant behaviour, watching clouds, the stars and the moon - anyone can become well-versed in Britain's difficult to predict and often wayward weather.
Good light reading, it is spiced with amusing asides and pretty pictures
—— New ScientistAnyone drawn to the big questions will enjoy this latest synthesis
—— New ScientistA wonderful, miraculous book ... The whole universe bottled for your delight
—— Stephen FryYou Are Here will provide an antidote to existential vertigo, helping you find your feet in a limitless universe
—— Matt RidleyOne of the best popular science books I have ever read
—— GuardianWonderful stuff, the most thoughtful pop science book of the last few years ... erudite, elegant and thoughtfully constructed
—— Sunday TimesI read it in an evening, with a sense of increasing excitement, and then vertigo, and finally a sort of stunned awe
—— Evening StandardFor many years, I've secretly longed for someone to take me by the hand and walk me through time and space - someone who would marvel with me at every strange thing we encountered, and pepper his scientific discourse with lines of poetry. Thank goodness Christopher Potter has come along at last
—— Dava SobelA marvelously capacious book that will attract serious readers everywhere
—— BooklistAny reader who has avoided science for fear of being overwhelmed will find a friendly guide in Potter ... This clear and smoothly written look at the mind-boggling history of everything is both informative and provocative
—— Publishers WeeklyThis Portable History of the Universe is awe-inspiring in its reach. It ranges easily over millions of miles and takes in billions of centuries at a stroke, yet at the same time it's somehow intimate and conversational in its manner. The engaging medium is the message, perhaps: to contemplate the universe, suggests Potter, is "to find ourselves at two poles at the same time: we are uniquely special and we are insignificant". Playing both poles against the middle with extraordinary aplomb, his book opens up to us the vastness of the cosmos
—— ScotsmanLess folksy and biographical than Bill Bryson, less zany than a Bluffer's Guide. But many a bang for your buck, washed down with quotations from the greats ... Potter has an engaging style
—— Daily MailWith marvellous clarity, compassion, erudition, humour and open-mindedness, Potter blasts us through the vast vacuum of space
—— Daily Telegraph